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mit sloan

Yep, after all of the invites this was a bummer. First I got a ding from Wharton on Nov 3 and then from MIT.

Well, with MIT I wasn’t really disappointed, because my app was really bad, I didn’t even plan applying, but their question was similar to one of my essays, and I thought: “Why not?”, I didn’t believe that I was going to apply in R2 anyways, so this was ‘now or never’.

MIT’s application was quite easy, they didn’t require TOEFL/IELTS scores (neither did I have them), so I decided to give it a try. They have this system with 8-9 criteria based on which they review each app, and the better ones get to be in top-right corner of their coordinate system.

Now, I understand that I have made some mistakes in my approach (because of the rush) as was expected. I don’t think that ‘optional’ essays were ‘mandatory’ as some say, as some people received invites without a single click on their videos/web-sites coming from MIT.

Anyways, great school, probably a great fit for a geek like me, but an expected result.

With Wharton the situation was somewhat similar in that I wasn’t planning to apply as I didn’t like a lot about the school and wanted to apply to only one of H/S/W, but the dates for Wharton were so convenient and I already had to skip H due to an early date and S as I didn’t like my essay. I had plenty of time, though looking back now I think that my essays were a bit too professional? It’s hard to tell, I really liked the work I did and I thought that I have a decent chance, so maybe they didn’t like LoR’s or my profile or something else, maybe my essays weren’t as good as I thought, maybe they didn’t like certain things that I said about my goals, I didn’t want to concentrate on Wharton being Finance school, maybe that was a mistake. Anyways, probably we will never know.

Wharton’s ding came first, at a date they scheduled (great initiative!) and I was crushed a bit, unlike with MIT, I have no particular answer as to why I was dinged, so it makes you think you’re overall profile is not good enough, which is quite scary.

Anyways, first decision date is soon, so my focus is on that.

I want to thank MIT and Wharton alums who I reached out to and who provided me with a lot of great insights (after which Wharton got higher in my personal rating and MIT dropped a bit lower) and advice.

Deadline for Round 1 MIT Sloan applications was on September 17, 2015 and today they started sending out invitations, seems like they are sticking to their last year approach of inviting most of U.S. based students in first wave and International students in the second wave. Most students were a bit discouraged by such a long wait, longest in last three years:

Event

2015

2014

2013

R1 Deadline

Sep 17, Thu

Sep 23, Tue

Sep 24, Tue

First invites

Oct 20, Tue

Oct 20, Mon

Oct 25, Fri

Final invites

Nov 9 (?), Mon*

Nov 7, Fri

Nov 15, Fri

*We will begin sending out interview invitations in mid-October and continue until the week of November 9th, at which point each applicant will receive an updated status.

It’s worth noting that invites are sent in 2-3 large batches, here’s a quote from GMAT club for 2014 and 2013 process:

So don’t panic, there is plenty of time to receive an invite and even if you don’t, remember that your world will not end without MBA: did you know that Jack Ma was rejected by Harvard 10 times?

And also, remember that Sloan asks for another essay to be prepared by invited applicants, here it is:

A second, short-answer question will be asked only of those invited to interview:

The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world and to generate ideas that advance management practice. Please share with us something about your past that aligns with this mission. (250 words or fewer).